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Employee engagement is often discussed as an HR measure, but its business value is much broader. When employees trust their leaders, understand where the organization is going, and feel that their work matters, they are better positioned to stay, adapt, collaborate, innovate, and contribute at a higher level.
This is the foundation of the Great Place To Work Effect: leaders shape trust, trust shapes employee experience, employee experience shapes culture, and culture drives performance.
Why should leaders think about employee engagement as a business performance issue?
Nancy Fonseca: Employee engagement gives leaders insight into whether people are ready and able to help the organization perform. The strategic question is whether employees trust the organization enough to contribute ideas, support change, give extra effort, and stay for the long term.
When leaders understand the employee experience clearly, they can see where people are energized, where there is friction, and where trust may be limiting performance. That is why engagement should be treated as a business signal, not only an HR metric.
What does Great Place To Work® Canada data show about trust and performance?
Nancy: Canadian data shows a strong connection between high-trust cultures and the outcomes organizations are trying to improve.
Great Place To Work® Canada research, based on more than 600,000 survey respondents from over 900 organizations, shows that Best Workplaces™ in Canada outperform typical Canadian companies across key culture outcomes, including employee loyalty, productivity, customer service, agility, innovation, teamwork, and employer brand strength.
We also see the performance connection in revenue per employee. Best Workplaces™ in Canada earn 7.83 times more revenue per employee. That matters because it shows how effectively great workplaces turn talent, trust, and employee experience into business results.
Why does trust matter in the age of AI?
Nancy: AI changes how work gets done, but people determine whether that change succeeds.
Employees need to understand the direction, trust the decisions being made, and feel supported as expectations shift. If people do not feel informed or involved, change becomes harder to adopt. If they do feel trusted and included, they are more likely to try new ways of working and help the organization move forward.
This is where trust becomes practical. The Great Place To Work Effect shows that high-trust cultures support agility, innovation, and productivity, the capabilities organizations need when work is changing quickly. AI may create new possibilities, but trust helps organizations turn those possibilities into progress.
How can HR leaders make the business case for employee engagement?
Nancy: HR leaders should start with the business outcome.
If the organization needs stronger retention, begin with retention. If the priority is faster adaptation, start with agility. If the business needs stronger execution, start with productivity.
The strongest business case connects employee experience data to the outcomes executives already care about. It shows where trust is helping performance and where gaps in the employee experience may be creating risk.
HR does not need to position this as a broad culture initiative. The stronger approach is focused: identify the outcome that matters most, understand what employees are experiencing, and help leaders take practical action.
Where should organizations start if they want stronger engagement and better results?
Nancy: Start by listening to employees in a structured and credible way.
Employees often see barriers before they appear in business results. They know where work is slowing down, where communication is unclear, where recognition is missing, and where leaders may not be involving people enough in decisions that affect their work.
From there, organizations should look for patterns. Do employees trust leadership? Do they feel their work has meaning? Do they have opportunities to try new and better ways of working? Are these experiences consistent across teams, roles, and locations?
The goal is not to measure engagement for the sake of measurement. The goal is to understand what helps people do better work and what may be preventing them from contributing fully.
When leaders act on that insight, employee engagement becomes more than a score. It becomes a way to improve retention, strengthen agility, support innovation, and build a workplace where people can contribute to business performance.